36 A RePOR TeR A T LARGe I PAUSED to look at a street MUNICIP AL LODGING HOUSE sign, and the wind, blowing wide and straight down First "You oughta go to Travelers Aid, but A venue, caught the little bag in my it's late," he muttered. "We send the hand and flopped it against my skirt. A young ones to Travelers Aid. Put passing cab slowed up on the other side your bag down here." of a row of parked trucks. No one was around, and even the lighted shops were empty and still. I walked faster and the rain seeped into my shoes. The cab-driver called "Going this way?" in a low, cautious tone. I shook my head, but he drove close to the curb and kept calling softly, "Going this way?" Twenty-seventh Street. Twenty- sixth. He was always next to me, idling along in the cab, saying now, "What are you scared of? Where are o " you gOIng 0 At Twenty-fifth, I crossed the street and started down the slope that leads to the river and the Lodging House. There were no lights except above the doorway far off, and the narrow street was muddy. The cab- driver was still next to me in the cah, saying, "Can't you stop and talk a o ? D ' 0 h " I mInute 0 on t go In t ere. was frightened nO"\\T for no reason at all, and I shook my head and ran to the door on the women's side, and opened it and slammed it be- hind me and leaned against it. A man was sitting at a wooden table near the entrance. There were lights everywhere, and some work- men in blue work clothes looking through a window in the bare hall. The man at the desk was old, with spectacles and no coat. He looked at me, at my shoes, at the b d O d " F o 0 " I ag, an sal Irst tIme 0 couldn't talk. I nodded. He said gently "Sit down there" and I sat and waited, swallowing. It was only ten o'clock, but it seem- ed much later. At last he went into the bundle-room near the door and beckoned. 1 told him what he wanted: my name, where I came from, why 1 was there. "1 just haven't got any mon- ey," 1 said. "1 thought l'd find , 0 my friends at home, but they re not In town till tomorrow. There doesn't seem to be anybody in town that 1 know. I don't kno\v where to go." He rubbed his chin and pondered. "Think they'll be back tomorrow? 1 could send you up to Travelers 4J\id-" C'They'll be back tomorrow." Satisfied, he filled out a card and shoved it over to me for my signature. H E gave me a check for it and wa ved to the staircase, and the men in blue shirts stopped talking as I went up to a room with tables in it. A woman in a short cotton dress was talking to another one in a nightgown. The dressed woman had a thin face like a workman's, and her hair pulled back tight, and she looked scrubbed but dirty anyway. She said "First lime?" just like the man downstairs, and like him was gentler after I nodded. 1 stood and waited while she laughed and called through a little window in the wall to some people 1 couldn't see. "You lazy old pigs," she called, and climbed upon a little step to laugh and talk some more. The other woman sat in the corner, her gray hair in curlers, and looked indifferent. " y . h " . 1 h ou, go ln t ere, sale t e atten- , :: : Ji J; :' ' :T ' "..' , !;'.i J ' ""'r': ;":,"h . f%" "".'''''' . r1 k - -1-.. dant at last, and I went in ahead of her to a room full of racks with clothes on them. A rope was stretched across with underwear of all kinds dry- ing on it, and there was a big hamper against a sort of pillar in the middle. There were benches like those in a railway station. She gave me a night- gown that had been boiled for months until it was stiff and gray, and she said "Take off all your clothes and put them on a bench." She spoke once more, to tell me to keep my shoes and stockings on, and then led me upstairs into a great room, all dark at first, with a noise of hundreds of people breathing There were dull red lights over the doors at far corners, but it was very dark. It was as big as a depart- ment-store room. There were beds in rows, hundreds of them, all double- deckers, and on each bed was a lump with a blanket over it. As we came in, son1e of them moved and reared up a little, and then sank down and started to breathe again. Our feet made a noise on the bare floor. 1 followed her through corridors of heds to one where . . : (, : t- ;.. .- "' ';,' , '. :X d;:'áJJ J f? %' _ D; (4' '\ ", .'. ....,., - '/ 4;h, "l j < " , , '>, J:j/" --' \ :, . ; t " ,! 1'>::: t J i:\\: . '.- 5(;: x: .. .;":V -- ;.. :-.;.. \qc ." . ......... l 't: ': " '. ,gJl. , ' :to' ', q ;:, , . .... <-... ' 1 , "\0 ,',;:; ri , ((1 don't see how it can be leaking, W a' arFt. 1 fixed it yesterday." :\;:.t;;"i; . ! .'."" ,f:" :i? ' : <:-.:'::":";- ..... {t\ ; 1{, , "' ". . "--, ' .' , ':.."' . : '::;; , :\::'-f . t. . ..: " , '. ; .:.\: . Co, . . . : , ' , ' "..>' "".-;x:"" , f-:0i :; :', d ,"^- 'i '^ :j,": U .. ' ï